Do you own a 3D printer?

Do you own a 3D printer?

  • Yes

    Votes: 78 27.8%

  • No, but I want one

    Votes: 105 37.4%

  • No, no need for one

    Votes: 97 34.5%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • Total voters
    281
bwana said:
Do you own a 3D printer?

If so, do you use it regularly?
If not, why not? Is it the cost or simply no need for one?
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I got one as a birthday gift for my fiancé a few years back.

We don't use it as regularly as we like, not beccause or cost, but because calibrating it is a bit of a pain. We had an issue with the printer a few months back and had to replace a part, and simply haven't had the time to calibrate it yet. But with Christmas coming up, we definitely intend to.
 
I own one, a basic one.
Still in the box a year later as I developed problems with my eyes, so I cant use it.
I either need to sell it or find someone to play with it and do prints for me = while allowing them to use it. Cost me R5700.
 
filament printer at home and titanium printer at work
 
I run a digital print and large format printing company, and would love to expand my capabilities.
 
Had one in storage for a year not printing, because resin was pricy i didnt want to waste it, then the fear turned into not printing anything at all. This month tho, im printing 75 parts, that will then go into a cheaper injection molding manufacturing. So thats quite awesome to be part of.. Then im going to just print the left overs before i procrastinate again. Think i might do some minuture cars, or maybe some mini achitectural models, like a mini couch hahaha
 
AstroTurf said:
So you can print Klein bottles?

cults3d.com

Klein Bottle / Mobius Vase

I like the proportions of this Klein bottle but I needed to make a couple of tweaks of my own. Smoothed out the sharp angle at the neck. Scaled the Z axis by 120% to make it more elegant. Reduced the overall height to 8 cm to fit my eMaker Huxley.
cults3d.com cults3d.com
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Yeah, 4d printing is on its way (according to uncle google or, if prefer a tinfoil search engine, duckduckgo). Saw this the other day and thought wow -
1669991346443.png
 
Yes. Purchased slightly above entry level (Creality Ender 3 S1) earlier this year.

Most fun I've had in ages - mostly print very practical widgets and a few doodads and toys both from Thingiverse and self created using Tinkercad.

PLA and PETG are the most practical materials for me since I don't have an enclosure.

Loadshedding has bedevilled things a lot, especially S4 and above.
 
Tinuva said:
Where did you order it from that ship to SA? Or you outside of SA?
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From the UK store, then to my forwarding address in the UK and from there to SA.

You can also have a chat with Bambu Lab sales team (they take a while to respond, really busy individuals), but they'll eventually get back to you on any queries that you may have.
 
Mars said:
Yea, Eskom is a real issue. I don't think I've printed anything that took more than an hour this whole year.
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Which means you have printed nothing of consequence since even a small toy cat takes five hours. I share your frustration.
 
Kosmik said:
Easily possible. Even buying something like a Ender you can learn a lot for assembly. Need good machined parts though.
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Other than the hotend, extruder & ALU extrusion for the frame we printed all the rest of the parts with current printers. Bearing housings, belt gears, shaft holders etc.
 
saor said:
Other than the hotend, extruder & ALU extrusion for the frame we printed all the rest of the parts with current printers. Bearing housings, belt gears, shaft holders etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's the frame I was referring too.
 
Bonywasawarrioraway said:
Which means you have printed nothing of consequence since even a small toy cat takes five hours. I share your frustration.
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Well, I would not say nothing of consequence. I've printed some small gears that I used as masters to cast in resin.
But yes, nothing very big.
 
Bonywasawarrioraway said:
Which means you have printed nothing of consequence since even a small toy cat takes five hours. I share your frustration.
Click to expand...
I just view it as an additional design constraint.

My brother wanted me to make some ammo storage boxes for him with this plan:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5376116

Unfortunately, doing that box would be about 15 hours on my printer using standard settings, which with Eskom is a no-go. Instead, I figured that the functional part of the box is the tray with holes in it. The box can be bought for cheap from any plastics shop. So what I have done now is make a parametric model in OnShape that you can input the box dimensions, corner fillets, desired depth and bullet case size. OnShape then goes and fills out the shape with as many holes as it can. Looking at a more reasonable 6 hours.


Screenshot 2022-12-11 at 17.09.06.png


Necessity is always the mother of invention.
 
Last edited:
konfab said:
I just view it as an additional design constraint.

My brother wanted me to make some ammo storage boxes for him with this plan:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5376116

Unfortunately, doing that box would be about 15 hours on my printer using standard settings, which with Eskom is a no-go. Instead, I figured that the functional part of the box is the tray with holes in it. The box can be bought for cheap from any plastics shop. So what I have done now is make a parametric model in OnShape that you can input the box dimensions, corner fillets, desired depth and bullet case size. OnShape then goes and fills out the shape with as many holes as it can. Looking at a more reasonable 6 hours.


View attachment 1439555


Necessity is always the mother of invention.
Click to expand...
Couldn’t you have bought a sheet of plastic and a r20 drill bit? :unsure:
 
bwana said:
Couldn’t you have bought a sheet of plastic and a drill bit?
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Well, Ive tried a similar thing with just a hand drill and a plastic sheet. The bit wanders, fatigue, all sorts if things make for a sub par result.
Personally I would have just put it on my cnc router and cut it out there, would be much faster. Or the laser.
 
Mars said:
Well, Ive tried a similar thing with just a hand drill and a plastic sheet. The bit wanders, fatigue, all sorts if things make for a sub par result.
Personally I would have just put it on my cnc router and cut it out there, would be much faster. Or the laser.
Click to expand...
I don’t have a cnc but I do have a drill press.
 
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